Page 4 - BusinessWest January 20, 2025

Hammer Down
Carr Hardware IsaChain—and an Institution
Bart Raser
looks over the Carr Hardware location on North Street in Pittsfield.
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
While he admits to prac- tically growing up at the Carr Hardware store in Pittsfield, working beside his
father, Marshall, during the summer and school vacations, Bart Raser says he had no real interest in living in the Berk- shires or making the family business a career.
That all changed when, while he was working in Boston and studying for his MBA, his father became ill with cancer. Raser came home — meaning to the
store on North Street — for what he thought might be several months.
“Instead, I kind of fell in love with it and never left,” he said. “It’s a good business. It’s been fun ... and it’s still fun. It’s great when you can wake up and love what you do every day.”
Indeed, working beside his father, who was very active in the business until recently (and until he was in his mid-90s), Raser has helped write the latest chapters in an intriguing story that began almost a century ago when Sam Carr put his name over a hard- ware store that would soon become, and always has been, an institution as much as a place to buy paint, nails, and,
“If it wasn’t for our community, we wouldn’t be here, so we support a ton of organizations, we encourage our people to get involved, and we supply our people with the time, and the money if it’s needed, to get involved.”
4 JANUARY 20, 2025 << FEATURE >> BusinessWest